The Making of the First Chinese-English Dictionary

2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 299-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huiling Yang
Keyword(s):  
Index System ◽  
Chinese Language ◽  
Chinese Characters ◽  
Bilingual Dictionaries ◽  
Number Of Citations ◽  
Contemporary Chinese ◽  
Bilingual Lexicography

Summary The first printed Chinese–English dictionary was the Dictionary of the Chinese Language in Three Parts compiled by Robert Morrison (1782–1834) published between 1815 and 1823. Two hundred years later it is still in use. This paper traces the tradition of missionary bilingual lexicography in China from its origins down to Morrison. While early manuscript bilingual dictionaries solved the problems of transliteration, alphabetical arrangement of Chinese entries, definition and grammatical information, Morrison improved the transliteration system which he had inherited, invented a new index system matching alphabetically arranged transliterations with Chinese characters, and provided a large number of citations from Chinese classics and popular contemporary Chinese books. Morrison’s lexicographical legacy is reflected in the fact that his transliteration was adopted as the basis for the Wade-Giles system and that the macrostructure and microstructure of his dictionary became a model for Samuel Wells Williams’ (1812–1884) Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language 漢英韻府 (1874, re-edited until 1909) and Henry Allen Giles’ (1845–1935) Chinese-English Dictionary (1892, last ed., 1972.)

scholarly journals Psycholinguistic Studies of Chinese Worldview Fragments

2020 ◽  
pp. 35-49
Author(s):  
Olga V. Dubkova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Chinese Language ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Chinese Characters ◽  
Chinese Word ◽  
Chinese Speakers ◽  
Bilingual Dictionaries ◽  
Practical Research ◽  
Mental Connections ◽  
The Russian Language

At present, fragments of the Chinese worldview are studied on the basis of theoretical and practical research developed by the Moscow Psycholinguistic School. In Russian and Chinese psycholinguistics, sufficient material has been accumulated to determine the main advantages of the free associative experiment. The problems of identifying stimulus words and interpreting reactions reflecting the Chinese picture of the world are also obvious. The free associative experiment allows us to determine the deep mental connections of the phonetic and graphic appearance of the Chinese word, represented by graphemes different from those of the Russian language, the latter having their own lexical and additional “graphic” meaning. The difficulties in learning languages of different typological systems are associated with the problems of compiling a vocabulary of stimulus words and the possibility of a multivalued interpretation of Chinese recipients’ reactions, reflecting the images of the Chinese consciousness. For this reason, it is unacceptable to transfer the “reification” of fragments of the Russian worldview to the fragments of the Chinese worldview. When compiling a vocabulary of stimulus words, one should take into account the structural and grammatical features of the Chinese word, the structure of Chinese characters and their origin, the frequency in the speech of native speakers, etc. To interpret the reactions of a free associative experiment, in addition to bilingual dictionaries, it is advisable to use various dictionaries of the Chinese language, including etymological ones. Based on the established tradition of analyzing the results of associative experiments, the author typologizes the reactions of Chinese speakers, which allows to establish the dynamics of the Chinese worldview.

New Area Studies and Languages on the Move

PMLA ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 126 (3) ◽  
pp. 693-700
Author(s):  
Jing Tsu
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Index System ◽  
Classification Scheme ◽  
Chinese Language ◽  
Chinese Script ◽  
Chinese Characters ◽  
Great Effort ◽  
Area Studies ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Index System

In 1909 Wu Zhihui, a proponent of esperanto and well-known anarchist of Twentieth-Century China, predicted the future of global languages. Though the nationalization of the Chinese language was still pending, Wu expressed concern not for its imminent standardization but for its eventual global viability. The outlook was not rosy: Not only is the Chinese language not phoneticized, it is also not easy to typeset or index. This is a tremendous obstacle to the dissemination of civilized modernization and the governance of all things…. Looking up Chinese characters takes great effort indeed. Regardless of the index system and classification scheme, it is very difficult to memorize them. Moreover, there are too many characters…. Western writing has one great advantage, which became clear as the greatest disadvantage of the Chinese language only with the advancement of machine technology. A typewriter can be used with Western scripts but not with the Chinese language…. Sooner or later the Chinese script has to be abolished.(51, 36, 37, 52; my trans.)

PROBLEMS OF LEXICAL EQUIVALENTING OF RUSSIAN PARTICLES IN A BILINGUAL DICTIONARY

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 99-107
Author(s):  
Larisa Alimpieva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Bilingual Dictionary ◽  
Bilingual Dictionaries ◽  
Communicative Act ◽  
The Russian Language ◽  
Bilingual Lexicography

In the process of communicative act Russian particles concurrently fulfil different functions. It makes Russian particles an important unit of functional-pragmatic sphere of the Russian language which is characterized by its national specifics and connotativity. The problem of codification of Russian particles in bilingual lexicography is complicated. The main problem at compiling a dictionary lemma is filiation (division of meanings) of Russian particles and their rendering by lexical means of a foreign language. The existing lexicographic descriptions of Russian particles in bilingual dictionaries irrelevantly reflect the structure and contents of their meanings. The aim of the article is to consider some theoretical problems of description of Russian particles by means of a second (target) language in dictionary lemmas of bilingual dictionaries.

scholarly journals Chinatown in Bangkok: The Multilingual Landscape

MANUSYA ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 38-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongmei Wu ◽  
Sethawut Techasan
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Cultural Awareness ◽  
Chinese Language ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
The Other ◽  
Chinese Characters ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Chinese Community ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Other Hand

This paper examines the linguistic landscape (shop names) of Chinatown in Bangkok, a prosperous minority language (Chinese) community of diverse commercial establishments. Informed by an ethnographic framework, it explores the preservation of Chinese language and culture under the circumstance of language contact with Thai, the majority language, and globalization influence of English. Unsurprisingly, the inherited Chinese language (dialects as Teochew or Cantonese) was lost in the 2nd or 3rd generation of the Chinese descendants in Chinatown. However, the shop names suggest that in part because of its commodifying value and cultural awareness of the current proprietors, the Chinese shop owners are inclined to preserve the Chinese language and culture of the shops through the use of traditional Chinese characters, colors, layout and other marks of the shops. On the other hand, an analysis of the mutual translations of Chinese and Thai indicates that Chinese has more of a symbolic rather than informative function for Thai monolingual customers. Moreover, the ascendancy of English has contributed to the complexity of the multilingual landscape in Bangkok’s Chinatown.

scholarly journals Pedagogic Perspectives on Chinese Characters Teaching for Latin American Students

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 45
Author(s):  
Jiajia Yu ◽  
Alexis Lozano
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Chinese Language ◽  
Chinese Characters ◽  
Communication Tool ◽  
Self Directed Learning ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Teaching Context ◽  
Chinese Teacher ◽  
Students Attitudes

Chinese characters are one of the most representative components of Chinese language. However, due to its complexity, the teaching of the language has become an important research topic. With the expansion of this language, it is important to analyze and reconsider approaches to inspire and guide students with different cultural backgrounds, languages and learning habits, and highlight their advantages and disadvantages. Based on two beginner level groups of Chinese in Mexico, this report analyzes teaching strategies, pedagogical activities and students’ attitudes towards two professors, a local Mexican teacher and a Chinese teacher. After observing both classes we found significant differences on their approaches to teach Chinese characters. The Chinese teacher emphasized the importance of characters as a communication tool and therefore tried to develop accuracy and efficiency, while the Mexican teacher focused on knowledge about characters, the association with students’ own experiences and self-directed learning techniques. We conclude with making remarks about which of these teaching approaches are more suitable for the teaching context of Chinese language in Latin American countries like Mexico.

Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture. Edited by Edward L. Davis. [London and New York: Routledge, 2005. xxiv+786 pp. $210.00. ISBN 0-415-24129-4.]

2005 ◽  
Vol 182 ◽  
pp. 458-459
Author(s):  
Jeremy Brown
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Visual Arts ◽  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Chinese Characters ◽  
Falun Gong ◽  
Chinese Studies ◽  
Reform Period ◽  
Contemporary Chinese ◽  
Important Shift

Readers seeking information about prominent urban Chinese artists, writers, composers, film-makers, public intellectuals, and socio-cultural trends in the reform period will find much of use in the Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture, a collaborative transnational effort that is unfortunately marred by unevenness and sloppy editing. Browsers will also find lively and opinionated essays about cars and taxis, falun gong, democracy, dating and sex shops.Editor Edward L. Davis gave free reign to the contributors of the almost 1,200 entries in this fifth volume, encouraging them to pass judgment and editorialize. He also wisely involved mainland scholars like Yue Daiyun and Dai Jinhua when drawing up the lists of entries, and called upon Francesca Dal Lago to oversee the book's excellent sections on visual arts. While the Encyclopedia's list of contributors includes prominent, well-established scholars (Timothy Cheek on intellectuals and academics, Frank Dikötter on prisons, and Geremie Barme´ on seemingly anything he wanted to write about), its large number of young, Chineseborn scholars based in North America and Europe reflects an important shift in the field of Chinese studies.Entries, varying in length from a single paragraph to ten pages (see Lionel Jensen's piece on falun gong, for example), are organized alphabetically, include cross-references, and are often followed by suggestions for further reading. A helpful thematic classified entry list precedes the entries themselves. Unfortunately, problematic organization undermines the book's usefulness for both literate Chinese readers and those with no knowledge of the language. Pinyin renderings of names and phrases are not accompanied by Chinese characters, hampering the task of scholars hoping to conduct further primary-source research on a particular person.

Translation in Bilingual Lexicography

Babel ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dionysis Goutsos
Keyword(s):  
General Problem ◽  
Linguistic Practice ◽  
Bilingual Dictionaries ◽  
Verb Aspect ◽  
History Of ◽  
Word Translation ◽  
Bilingual Lexicography ◽  
Final Text ◽  
Faux Amis

Abstract Greek bilingual dictionaries have long been marked by lack of naturalness and inadequate semantic and stylistic discrimination between the various equivalents suggested in translation. Although this is a general problem of bilingual dictionaries, which necessarily deal with decontextualized instances of language in the construction of the lemma, translationese is common in English-Greek dictionaries as a result of the idiosyncratic history of Greek applied linguistic practice. The paper discusses issues of translation equivalence that came into view in the editing of the new Collins English-Greek Dictionary (1997). Specific problems relating to the translation from English to Greek are pointed out, with reference to the areas of lexical, grammatical and discourse equivalence. In particular, the occurrence of 'false friends' and register couplets, the categories of definiteness, countability and verb aspect and the varying Theme-Rheme structures constitute points of divergence between the two languages. The word-for-word translation of these linguistic aspects is mainly accountable for the lack of naturalness. Dictionary editing involves a multitude of detailed decisions along these parameters, which shape the lemmas and influence the quality of the final text. The help from both English and Greek corpora has been indispensable at defining the parameters of naturalness for each lemma and at solving problems specific to Greek bilingual lexicography. Résumé Les dictionnaires bilingues grecs ont été longtemps marqués par un manque de naturel, par une discrimination sémantique et stylistique inadéquate entre les différentes équivalences suggérées dans la traduction. Bien qu'il s'agisse d'un problème général propre aux dictionnaires bilingues, qui, nécessairement se fondent sur des exemples hors de leur contexte linguistique lors de la construction du vocable, des traductions trop influencées par la langue de sortie sont communes dans les dictionnaires anglais-grec à la suite de l'histoire idiosyncratique de la pratique de la linguistique appliquée grecque. L'article se penche sur les problèmes de l'équivalence traductionelle lors de la rédaction du nouveau dictionnaire anglais-grec (Collins - 1997). Des problèmes spécifiques relatifs à la traduction de la langue anglaise à la langue grecque sont mis en évidence relativement aux domaines de l'équivalence lexicologique, grammaticale et du discours. Plus spécialement, l'émergence de "faux amis" et de couples dans le registre, les catégories de précision, la comptabilité des substantifs et l'aspect des verbes ainsi que les structures variables thème-rhème constituent des points de divergence entre les deux langues. La traduction mot-à-mot de ces aspects linguistiques est surtout due au manque de naturel. La rédaction de dictionnaires implique une multitude de décisions détaillés suivant ces paramètres, qui régissent les vocables et influencent la qualité du texte final. L'aide des corpus anglais et grecs a été indispensable lors de la définition des paramètres du naturel pour chaque vocable et lors de la solution des problèmes spécifiques à la lexicographie bilingue grecque.

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